


"Fifty Bucks"

by SneakyBunyip



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Captain Marvel Spoilers, Family Feels, Gen, Humor, Shapeshifting, Spoilers, This was supposed to just be funny then it turned into Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 20:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18080504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SneakyBunyip/pseuds/SneakyBunyip
Summary: Talos can't resist showing off his Talent™ for shapeshifting forever, and he finally accepts Fury's offer to change into a Venus Fly Trap for "Fifty Bucks". The change itself opens up an opportunity for Talos that is wholly unexpected.





	"Fifty Bucks"

Talos couldn’t deny he liked to show off. 

Well, he  _ could  _ deny it, but it would be a lie. 

After all, he  _ was _ quite talented. Why not put on a little show for the local human he had come to call 'friend'? 

The skrull spy didn’t actually know how much “fifty bucks” was worth in the universe, but fifty of anything sounded like something he wished to have.

So, here he was, standing in the middle of Fury’s living room feeling a bit silly, but also, eager to show off his skills. 

“Alright,” Fury grinned, sitting on the edge of the couch. “You sure you got it? I can try to find more pictures.”

“No, I have it,” Talos said, studying the living room as he determined where precisely where he was going to “land”. 

The coffee table was the most ideal place, but the glass top would be a problem while shifting. He would need to ease himself onto it so as to not crack the surface with a Skrull's weight rather than that of plant life.

It was very kind of Fury to allow Talos and his family to stay in his apartment while Talos’ shoulder healed. Talos would have rather stayed with the Rambeaus, in a warm home and quiet atmosphere, but realistically it was safer with Fury in this sterile apartment armed with government-issued defense systems and a safe room if needed.

_ But it is very sterile _ , Talos thought.

Despite Fury insisting that he lived in the apartment, it hardly looked "lived in". There were no decorations, all the furniture was very plain and forgettable, and the furniture looked brand new. Talos looked closer at the coffee table itself and realized there was not so much of a smudge on the glass. 

Did Fury wipe everything down each day? Every hour? Or was he simply lying that he lived here. 

Talos digressed. 

“Alright, Fury, Talos said, clapping his emerald-green hands together and planting his feet firmly on the hardwood floor. "Have fifty of your bucks ready for me when my limbs return.”

"You got it!" Fury leaned forward, his good eye glittering with anticipation, while his less-than-stellar eye was hidden beneath a bandage (a bandage Fury insisted would not be there for long).

Talos closed his eyes, envisioning the Venus Fly Trap in his mind. 

He started with his hands and envisioned them shifting into roots, long spindly threads, delicate and vital, and the foundation of this shift.  He pressed his fingertips against the pristine glass top of the coffee table (and ignored the small grunt of protest from Fury as he did so).  Each finger began to thin and bifurcate repeatedly, spreading across the table and wrap around two of the table legs, securing him in place as he moved to the second part of the shift.

Next came the collection of seeds where both roots and the stems were birthed. It resembled the clusters of blackberries from the Rambeaus garden and Talos felt the comparison to be a private tribute to them. He did miss Maria and Monica despite only spending a short while with them. 

The rest of the transformation came to him effortlessly, and he deliberately avoided thinking too hard about the details, lest he go mad from it. A shift from one humanoid to another is familiar and less jarring, but for a skrull to shift into a non-humanoid organism requires an element of deniability. 

He does not think about his bones dissolving or his muscles shrinking to nothing. He doesn’t imagine his skin splitting in some areas and being resewn into shapes alien to his true self. All he focused on was the shift itself, and that one moment he was a skrull (and a very handsome one at that), and the next he was an organism that would earn him "fifty bucks".

Talos adjusted the DNA of the plant ever so slightly to allow himself to see and hear through the tiny pores of the plant's "mouth" which really was more of a purse lined with small hairs used to catch prey. Although there were several of these purses on the Venus Fly Trap, he fashioned one to be larger and more prominent - a “head”, if he were to give it a designation.

“Holy...shit…” Fury whistled. “Is that really you?”

Talos snapped his wide, flat mouth shut just before Fury had the gall to try and stick his finger in it. 

With a hiss of surprise, Fury withdrew his finger and laughed. “Yeah, that’s definitely you. So how long can you stay like this? Can you even understand me? Or do you have some kind of...plant brain now?”

“Plant brain?!” Talos squeaked.

Fury shot to his feet. “You can talk?!”

“Well, I can now,” Talos grumbled, several octaves higher than his usual voice, a side effect of his small size. “You were asking me questions and this plant doesn’t appear to have vocal chords so I took the liberty. To answer: Yes, I can understand you; I can stay like this for as long as I wish; No, I do not have a plant brain, though I am conscious of plant needs.”

“What, like...trapping flies?”

“I assume you mean insects, and yes.”

Fury stood up. “I think there’s a moth still hiding somewhere in my bedroom. I'll see if he's still there.”

“That’s entirely unnecessary. We just had dinner and...”  Fury had already left the room before Talos could finish his thought.  “...and...I am...vegetarian.”

A soft giggle came from behind the couch.

With limited movement and sight, Talos angled one side of his "head" towards the sound.

The last time he had heard that giggle was six years ago, very different, and yet very familiar.

“And who is that?” Talos wondered aloud. “Is that an insect ready to be my dinner?”

More giggling, the sound traveling from one end of the couch to the other, a small flash of shiny green skin popping in and out of view.

“A giggling insect! It sounds delicious,” Talos said, opening and closing his green teeth.

“Nooo, I am not!” Said a small voice.

Talos had no adequate response.

If he had a mouth, he would have smiled.  If he had a heart, it would have swelled.  If he had eyes, they would have glistened with happy tears.

Since he had none of these things, his stems quivered with as much emotion that could be conjured from a small carnivorous plant. 

He had waited six long years to hear his daughter’s voice and after three very long days he had yet to hear her utter a single word. 

Not that he truly knew what to say to her either.

“I’ve waited so long, Soren,” he had said to his wife the night before. “Now that she’s here, I don’t know what to say. I don't even know where to begin.”

“Give her time, my love," Soren had replied, leaning into her husband's embrace as they watched their daughter sleep. "Give yourself time, too. This is new to both of you.”

_This is your chance now, Tal,_ he thought to himself.  _Don't blow it.  And get ahold of yourself! Venus Fly Traps do not cry._

“W-well! It definitely sounds like a tasty morsel!”

A pair of bright purple eyes peeked over the couch. “I’m not a morsel!”

“Oh! Look at this! The largest moth I have ever seen!” Talos' stems shook to imitate excitement, all the purses bobbing around comically.

The little girl jumped out from behind the couch, her green arms extended upwards like a true showman, just like her father. “No! I’m a skrull!”

“A skrull!” Talos squeaked. “My mistake. Surely your father is very proud of how big and strong you are!”

The girl shrugged shyly, tucking her hands behind her back and shifting from one foot to the other, but her bright, sharp-toothed smile never left her face. 

Talos _had_ hoped his first conversation with his daughter would have been Skrull-to-Skrull, but somehow this felt more...appropriate, despite the fact his voice sounded as if it was poisoned with helium. 

“He missed you, little one,” Talos said, as she knelt in front of the coffee table. Her nose was was mere inches from the plant and up this close Talos could see that she had her mother's eyes and his strong chin ridges. His main stem straightened with pride. “Oh Krikett, he...I...thought of you every day we were apart. I know you don’t know me very well, but…I want to know everything about you.”

Krikett didn’t respond at first, her little fingers reaching up to tug at the very tip of her pointed ear. Talos wondered if it was a nervous habit, as it was something he often did at her age as well. 

“Can...you teach me how to turn into a Fly Trap, papa?” She asked, finally.

“Absolutely, I will teach how to shift into all sorts of things if you like.” He wiggled his leaves again. “Even tasty moths!”

Her face brightened as she giggled. “Nooo…You’ll eat me!”

“Gasp!” Talos squeaked. “I would never! Alright, time for me to change back, stand back, okay, little one?”  


Krikett nodded and climbed back onto the couch and waited.

Talos kept his transformation slow, in part because he was afraid any sudden movements would scare his daughter away, but also it was good for all young Skrull to observe the anatomy of a shift, especially from two biological beings so vastly different. 

Krikett’s eyes shone with eagerness as he shifted, darting around his form drinking in the changes and hopefully tucking them away in her mind for her first transformation in another few years. 

By the time the roots had reabsorbed back into Talos’ nervous system he was standing in front of the table again.

“Tada!” He said, wiggling his hands just as he had done with his leaves.

Krikett clapped and he bowed with a flourish. But as he took a seat beside his daughter, the confidence of a showman began to subside and nervousness rose within him. 

_ But why?  _ He wondered.  _ Why is talking to her so much easier as a plant? This is unacceptable. She needs her father to say something wise, something profound, but I have nothing to offer her. _

“Do you like Uno?” Krikett asked, suddenly.

Talos blinked. “Do I...what?”

Krikett laughed then hopped off the couch, bolting to the guest room. Talos sat there alone for several minutes, twiddling his thumbs and wondering where his daughter went off to. Finally , Krikett returned holding a collection of colorful cards stacked haphazardly in her small hands. 

“Uno,” she declared and climbed back on the couch. “I’ll teach you!”

For the next several minutes, Krikett explained, in enthusiastic detail, about this bizarre card game that was all the rage among humans. Talos listened with rapt attention, asking questions occasionally and slipping in a joke that Krikett either giggled at or huffed in playful exasperation. More than a similar jaw structure and talent for showmanship, Talos was pleased to know they shared the same dry, yet quirky sense of humor.

After losing three rounds, Talos realized that Fury had still yet to return with his moth.

When Talos looked to Fury’s bedroom he saw the agent standing there quietly, half in the shadow with a half-smile on his face. There was a small green bill in his hand, most likely the primitive currency representing “fifty bucks”.

Giving Talos a nod of understanding, Fury closed the door, leaving the two to play.

A half minute later, Fury reopened the door just enough to let a moth fly out, fluttering around the living room in utter confusion before resting on the ceiling where it remained the rest of the night.


End file.
